Hiking in the Boy Scouts was a disaster for me . Turned me away from the woods for a decade. I grew up in Texas where being outdoors meant football or hunting. I didn't have a dad to teach me about either one so I was a disaster at the former and never even tried the latter. For me it was some hikes with friends in LA and the Sierras, then, much later, reading some books about climbing. Finally a long period of just dreaming about it during university made sure that when I finished I was going to the mountains big time.

The next question is, how did the pursuit shape or reshape your life once engaged?

cool Mine started with me skint with no cash to buy clothes so went to the bookshop...looked at the travelling books to plan next years holiday and saw the outdoor/adventure books and out of total boredom just picked up one which was 'Into Thin Air' bought it for the husband as a holiday read and then I read it and it was a good book..then bought lots of others...read my backside off then went to a mountain and the climb felt so good and now planning lots of climbs this year and next

Next few are Snowdon, Ben Nevis and then next year planning a road trip to Finland to do one

emmieuk wrote:ohhh this hobby has already total shaped my life in many ways....money is going fast....it consumes my thoughts...holidays to the beach are written off...now its all climbing climbing climbing.

emmieuk wrote:...how did you all start? Long walks as a kid? Read a book in school? What got you into this?

What were your first climbs?

The intense need to escape the sensory input and overload of the "civilized" world. I had to (and still have to) get out to clear my mind. Eventually I found out that there were tops of mountains at the end of lots of trails. I don't remember the first mountain I hiked, but my first climb was El Whampo on Tahquitz.

1000Pks wrote:Strangely, I grew up next to a John Muir School, which I wondered then why I couldn't attend. Back in the 1950's, it was a private school, perhaps, so I must have been excluded (by race?). This comes about again to halt my climbing via the local enviro club, with their ban on climbing, I guess, to less painfully and legally keep all of us minorities out of their "private club (by them)."

Anyway, we got going to Yosemite when we got our civil rights (early 1960's), I suppose, and of course I fell in love with the mountains and glorious scenery. Hiking, and then mountaineering, then climbing, followed suit fairly quickly. The local Sierra Club let me in, and though, as they said, "We don't have to like it," I was able to attend peak climbs and hikes, then advance to form my own climbing section, strenuous climbing as I liked it.

More details are at my website, and I have added some old, low quality, movie clips from my early ascents, enabled by my job then, delivering newspapers. History, if interested.

emmieuk wrote:ohhh this hobby has already total shaped my life in many ways....money is going fast....it consumes my thoughts...holidays to the beach are written off...now its all climbing climbing climbing.

I grew up near the Alps. When I was 5 or 6 years old my friends and I played a lot in the hills and in the next many years we just climbed higher and higher. We had no idea about grade, difficulties, or protection. We climbed the rocks because they were in the way to get higher or to see what's beyond